Holy Land-Day3-Tabgha-Galilee-Tabor-Cana

A long day but one of the best days of my life. Thankfully we did not have to check out that morning. We got out ( a lil behind scheduled) and drove across town to Tabgha. On one side of the road is the lake(Lake Tiberias) and on the other side are green lands. The lake is like a violin (kinar). 30% of the lake's water is supplied to the surrounding lands. The Genesareth valley is near the lake. We passed Magidala city-the home town of Mary Magdalene- and saw a lot of banana plantations there. We also saw the project that helps to pump water from the lake to the different cities in the neighbourhood.
We visited the Sermon on the Mount church. This is an octagonal shaped church was built by a Franciscan architect-Antonio Barluzzi. This church is on the Mount of Beatitudes in Tabgha. The hills and landscape can help you picture Jesus addressing the crowds and teaching them. From the church on the mount, one has a superb view of lake Tiberias.

Sermon on the Mount Church

Next we visited the Church of Multiplication in Tabgha-the place where Jesus blessed the loaves and fed the 5000. The church has an outer courtyard. Inside is a rock where Jesus multiplied the loaves. There is a Byzantine mosaic of 2 fishes inbetween a basket on the floor and this is the typical representation of Tabgha.

5 loaves and 2 fishes

Tabgha

We then visited Peter's Primacy and Mensa Christi (Christ's Table). It is here that Jesus told his disciples to cast their net on the other side of the boat after an uneventful night. Jesus is telling each of us to turn towards Him so that we may also have abundant life. They have breakfast together and then Jesus asks Peter, "Do you love me?..".Feed my sheep"..

Mensa Christi(Christ's Table) in Peter's Primacy

Outside this church are a few stone steps that Jesus is believed to have walked on. They look ancient and quiet believeable.

Steps that Jesus walked on

Peter's Primacy by the Sea of Galilee

Behind the church is the Sea of Galilee. We stepped into the cool waters and imagined Jesus walking on it.



Our next stop was Caphernaum-the town of Jesus. We enetered the house of Peter which is now converted into a church. This can be found below the glass floor of the present church. This is the house where Jesus heals Peter's mother in-law and also where the crippled man is brought down through the roof by his friends.



Peter's house

The remains of some of the old houses of Capernaum can be found outside. Also are found the remains of the synagouge where Jesus taught.


Old synagouge in Capernaum where Jesus taught

We the went for a boat ride in the Jesus boat on the Sea of Galilee. The 30 minutes journey was kick started with the oldest member in the group-a 75 yr old appachen hoisting the Indian flag while the rest of us sang the National anthem. Achen and a couple of others sang and entertained us. The valley around the lake is the Gennesereth valley. When we got off the boat, we receieved a certificate for travel.

Indian flag on the Jesus boat

Sea of Galilee

Next stop was lunch at St. Peter's restaurant.One famous place that all tourisits visit. We were served 'Peter's fish'and 'sticky'rice. There was also the ususal spread of salads. The fish is not very exciting but I ate it cause of its significance in the land.

St.Peter's fish

After lunch, we headed off to Mount Tabor. This is supposed to be the Mount of Transfiguration, though there are different views for this. It is 588m in height. Our buses dropped us off at Tabor terminal. From there we had to go by mini buses to the church on the top. It was so cold and windy and we were left waiting there for a very long time. The drive uphill is about 10 mins. We got off there and walked to the church. At the back of the church are 2 memorials- one for Elijah and the other for Moses. There was a group conducting communion in the church.

Transfiguration Church at Tabor

Inside the Transfiguration church

The drive downhill was fun and with the Chennai gang. We then boarded our bus and hurried towards Cana. We were supposed to visit the previous but were late.Looked like it was going to be the same scene today also. I badly wanted to visit that church and so kept praying that we would make it on time. On the way, we sang a lot of english and tamil choruses and had a nice time. When we reached Cana, the church was kept open just for us-rather they had closed it and opened it again just for us. We walked through a narrow stone street in order to reach the church. most of these churches close by 6pm, some even as early as 5pm. Anub achen prayed with everybody together. Some couples renewed their marriage vows too. I had a good time there-spiritually.
We went down to the crypt below. There is a stone jar similar to what Jesus used to turn water into wine. The remains of the old Byzantine church built over the wedding house are also found.

Church at Cana

The stone jar at churc of Cana

It is believed that the wedding was probably of a cousin of Jesus. And the wedding is said to have taken place on the 3rd day because as per the Creation story, on the 3rd day, God says "Ït is good"twice.
Those who renewed their marriages got certificates. We had some fun taking pictures with Koshy uncle and achen and then did some shopping in the area.
Back in the hotel, I had a bath, dinner and then packed up to check out the next morning. The Shabbath began at 5pm. People had lit candles in a common place in the hotel. Daphne aunty's Israeli friends came over to visit her.


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Pilgrimage-Day3-Tabgha-Galilee-Tabor-Cana

Holy Land-Day2-Israel

A day of customs,immigration and security check formalities. We packed our bags and checked out of Hotel Belle Vue in Amman and boarded the bus for the 2hr long drive to Israel. First we passed through the busy streets of Amman and then reached the empth outskirts. Then it was a downhill drive with a lot of bends. Either side of the road was dry valleys and olive trees here & there.

Towards the border of Amman

Sheik Hussein bridge

Once we reached the plains, there was vegetation. Saw greenhouses and a lot of tomatoes. After 120 mins, we reached Jordan border. We had to get off the bus, take our bags and go into a room. the bags went through a scaner and then we could take them and get out and board the bus. The bus drove down a few meters and reached another building. We filled out our Jordan exit forms and stood in queue. An eye scan was done and some people had to give a digital fingerprint too. Got our exit papers signed and boarded our bus. We then crossed into Israel via the Sheik Hussein bridge-a small one.

More immigration and checking formalities. We were 'welcomed'by Israeli women who can scare men and women equally with their voice and looks. Smart, able men and women officials ordered to send our bags through the scanner.Most of us were forced to open our bags for inspection. It was interesting to note that atleast 30% of the people were stopping over in the Gulf to meet their children or relatives on the way back. So they had big bags full of rice flour and masalas and it was quite an effort explaining to the airport officials. After 4 solid hours, at the Israeli immigration, we got our paper visas and crossed into the country and boarded the buses waiting for us.

We were in Bus no.2 and were welcomed by our driver Obrahim and guide Hakeem-both Arab Christians. We drove down the highways of Israel into Nazareth. We were treated with greenery all around after the brown wastelands of Jordan. on either side of the road were huge pockets of lovely yellow mustard flowers-growing in the wild. They grew like weeds but they were a marvellous treat to the eyes. There were different unique methods of farming of other vegetation crops. We drovethrough Tiberias valley which is the most fertile plain in Israel.

Mustard along the wayside

A lot of history is required to make your knowledge of the trip complete. For starters, the Byzantine period was from 326-638 AD and the Crusaders ruled from 1099 onwards. The period in between was ruled by the Muslims.

We stopped for lunch in Nazareth at a restaurant name El Majana Nazareth is a hilly area with an Arabic settlement. Modern part of Nazareth,called Nazareth Illit is an European settlement with a good majority of new comers. Lunch was salads and Kubus and the likes. I enjoyed it probably cause I was very hungry. But the best part of it all was the really sweet oranges we got at the end of the meal.

Nazareth orange

We barely had an hour left and 2 churches to visit in the locality. We first hurried to the Orthodox church of the Annunciation. This is where Mary was supposed to have been when Gabriel first appeared to her. She was near a spring and ran from their to her house which is now the Basilica of Annunciation. The later is a few streets away. The spring that she was drawing water from is still supposed to be flowing.

The Orthodox church of Annunciation

We then walked to the basilica. This is supposed to be the house of Mary and that is where the 'Good News'was revealed to her. It is a really lovely church built on 2 floors.

The Basilica of Annunciation





top of the Basillica of Annunciation



Outside St.Joseph church



Next to this church is the workshop of Joseph which is now St.Joseph's church. It is a smaller one but with the remains of the older one and of the workshop. We were literally driven out of these churches cause it was way past their closing time.

We then headed straight to Cana.Since the church there had closed, we shopped (esp for wine) and checked into hotel King Solomon in Tiberias. A beautiful town situated on the banks of the Sea of Galilee/Lake Tiberias. This town is quieter than Nazareth. We stayed on the 7th floor. Our room had a balcony that overlooked the lake.

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Pilgrimage-Day 2-Nazareth

Holy Land-Day 1-Jordan

The very first time I stepped inside the airport was in the early hours of 23rd Feb 2011. Went through the baggage screening and was asked to open my suitcase cause my laptop was in it- the 1st of the many time I was forced to open it. WE were 19 of us from Chennai heading towards the Holy Land for 9 days. We boarded Gulf Air  at 3 55am and I took off on my 1st air journey. The photo session started then itself.

The journey was quite uneventful otherwise. We were served early breakfast and then I took a nap. We reached Bahrain at 6 55am their time. Went through the transit formalities and waited for the connecting flight to Amman. We saw Ustad Amjad Ali Khan while waiting at the airport. The next flight was a 3 hr journey and we were welcomed at Queen Alia airport in Amman by the airport guide and we got into a bus that was already full of people from Kerala. In total, we were around 83 of us spread across 2 buses. The guide in our bus was Iesan(Muslim) and our driver was Hasheem. The airport is around 35 km from Amman city.

South Jordan is the Moabite kingdom and North Jordan is the Ammonite Kingdom. We drove towards the south where almost 80% of it is a desert. There are 2 roads-the Desert road and the Kings road. Though the later is longer, the kings used to travel that way cause of the availability of food, water and shelter.

We first stopped at Dana restaurant in Madaba. Madaba means 'Table of fruit'. The common names of Madaba is Carpet City, Mosaic City, Christian City and Tobacco city. Lunch was arabic and was quite thrilling cause it was different from the usual rice and sambar. Even though the journey was tiring and sleep was pending, I was charged after lunch and a face-wash session and was all set to start my pilgrimage.

We first visited the St. George Orthodox church in Madaba. This was earlier a Byzantine church and was destructed. Later on, a christian familyy built the present church on top of it in 1884. The oldest mosaic map of the Holy Land is found here. This map was made for the pilgrims by Sulaimanos using 2.5 million stones over a span of 11,000 hours. Till recent times, this map has helped in a lot of discoveries of places and boundaries.



Inside the Greek Orthodox Church in Madaba



Mosaic Map



Our next destination was Mount Nebo-the last destination of Moses (Deut 34). This place is 750 m above sea level. There is a Franscican church there, now under renovation. Mosaics from Moses's eye valley (below Mount Nebo) are found in the church. 3 springs from Moses's time still exist in the valley.

Moses's eye valley at Mt. Nebo

Òlive tree planted by Pope John Paul

In 2000, Pope John Paul II visited the place and declared it 'holy'. A statue has been erected to commemerate this and also an olive tree was planted by him. On Mt. Nebo, from where Moses stood and saw the promised land, to the left is the Dead sea, right, below the mountains is Jericho and straight ahead is Jordan valley.

We visited a charity organosation run by Queen Noor where some handicapped people and others make mosaic souvenirs and a lot of other things. We got some refreshing black tea and I could not finish mine cause I got it last.

Erected in commeration of the visit of Pope John Paul II in 2000



View from Mount Nebo

The Bronze Serpent (under construction)

The view from Mt.Nebo-Jordan valley

Artisans at work on mosaic

A completed piece of mosaic work





St.George Orthodox church-Madaba





We checked into Belle Vue hotel in Amman. Nancy and I were room mates. Prayer and a common meeting was followed by dinner.
Nancy and I did a few crazy things in the room. The fridge was stocked and we took a few chocolates. Only later did we come to know that it was charged and we had to pay for it. We also borrowed a charger from Daphene aunty and fit it into a socket creating a mark on the switchboard and getting the lights off! It was Thomas Kurian achen who came and got us out of trouble!

Day 1 is quite elaborately described. The remaining days may not be so, though I wish to research more and add them in when possible. Search Google and the Bible for more info. 

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Pilgrimage-Day 1